A Brief History of Television Interviews – and Why Live TV Helps Those Who Lie and Want to Hide
From Michael J. Socolow, Associate Professor, Communication and Journalism, University of Maine, writing for The Conversation: First, it happened on Fox News. Chris Wallace asked White House adviser Stephen Miller about the president’s decision to use private lawyers “to get information from the Ukrainian government rather than go through … agencies of his government.” Miller’s response began, […]
Practicing Law In The Public Spotlight
Attorney Jack Bacevice joined the Cleveland firm Mansour Gavin after years as an Assistant Director of Law for the city of Cleveland. He’s handled numerous high-profile cases and is very familiar with practicing in the court of law while the court of public opinion intently watches. We’ll periodically feature a Q&A with Jack and Hennes […]
Crisis Management: Communicating a Sudden Leadership Change
[by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications] Sexual misconduct allegations cause a company to fire its president. The board of a major nonprofit decides its well-entrenched executive director has been “phoning it in” for the past year and shows her the door. A CEO is dismissed after sowing a pervasive culture of fear that touched off an […]
Three Tips for Revamping Your Crisis Management Strategy
By Todd Aberman, writing for PublicRelay A company can build up a great brand reputation one day, only to have an unforeseen PR crisis tarnish its brand the next day. Effective crisis management can not only mitigate the negative impact that such an event causes, but also has the potential to build up a company’s brand reputation […]
The Consequences of ‘Horse Race’ Reporting
By Denise-Marie Ordway, writing for the Harvard Kennedy School Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy When journalists covering elections focus primarily on who’s winning or losing — instead of on policy issues — voters, candidates and the news industry itself suffer, a growing body of research has found. Media scholars have studied so-called […]
The Political Apology
By Peter Donolo, writing for the Globe and Mail: As Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau has been uncommonly apologetic. His apologies for a litany of Canada’s historical wrongs even prompted the venerable BBC to ask “does Justin Trudeau apologize too much?” That’s one reason his almost defiant decision – to which he’s holding firm – not to […]
A Reputation Management Lesson: Even the Legends Must Be On Guard – Constantly
By Thom Fladung/Hennes Communications In 1982, Johnson & Johnson wrote the book on effective crisis response – literally. Chicago was in a state of panic. Within just a few days, seven people had dropped dead from cyanide poisoning. There was no explanation until investigators discovered the link: Tylenol. Someone had laced Chicago’s Tylenol supply with […]
Crisis Management FAIL: Michigan State Paying the Price for Their Systemic Failure to Address the Nassar Sex Abuse Accusations
By Nora Jacobs, Hennes Communications On September 5, the U.S. Department of Education announced it was fining Michigan State University $4.5 million for “a systemic failure to protect students from sexual abuse.” The fine is the latest fallout from the Larry Nassar scandal, which has embroiled MSU in lawsuits, a succession of high-profile firings, resignations […]
Be Prepared, Not Scared. September is National Preparedness Month.
While the article below is aimed at personal and home preparedness, is your organization or business prepared for a disaster? According to the American Red Cross, 20% of businesses impacted by a major disaster end up going out of business not because they didn’t have enough insurance but because they didn’t have a disaster plan. […]
Crisis Communications for Hurricanes
By Jim McKay, writing for Emergency Management: How the Medical University of South Carolina, a 700-bed medical center with six colleges, honed its crisis communications strategy and methodology and was able to continue operations during Hurricane Florence last September. As Hurricane Florence whipped through the Carolinas creating havoc last September, the Medical University of South […]